Iran is blasting into space, launching a ten foot-long research rocket with a very special pay load : A mouse, two turtles, and a can of worms.<\/p>\n
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called it a \u201cbig event.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cThe scientific arena is where we defeat the West\u2019s domination,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The West is, taking this, and past Iranian \u201cspace shots\u201d seriously.<\/p>\n
The fear is \u201cdual use,\u201d that an Iranian missile could just as easily carry a nuclear payload.<\/p>\n
This is one reason for the recent deployment of US Patriot anti missile defense in the Gulf region.<\/p>\n
Iranian President Ahmadinejad is ALSO sounding conciliatory notes this week.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In an interview, he said Iran would now accept a UN offer to send its uranium abroad for enrichment in an effort to monitor its suspect nuclear program.<\/p>\n
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said today he would welcome such an agreement.<\/p>\n
But a spokesperson for the UN nuclear watchdog IAEA would only tell us they are \u201caware of media reports.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 A diplomatic source went furthere though, telling us they’re not aware of a formal acceptance of any offer from Iran.<\/p>\n
This latest offer comes, perhaps not coincidentally, at a time when the US is looking to ratchet up sanctions against the Tehran regime.<\/p>\n
Secretary of State Clinton was in Europe last week lobbying officials.<\/p>\n
Some Iranians, at least, prepared to take more economic hits to defeat a hated regime.<\/p>\n
And, the Iranian government is girding for new protests next week.\u00a0 February 11 marks the anniversary of the Iranian revolution.\u00a0\u00a0 Threats this week of more executions of opposition figures is a sign Tehran is not taking chances. \u201cGreen movement\u201d protestors say they\u2019ll use it to attack the regime.<\/p>\n
Tehran did offer another olive branch of sorts this week, the release of three American hikers they\u2019ve held since last summer. They would be swapped in exchange for Iranians allegedly held by the US.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo comment,\u201d from a spokesperson of the families of the Americans.\u00a0 No dice, more or less, from the State Department.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Iran is blasting into space, launching a ten foot-long research rocket with a very special pay load : A mouse, two turtles, and a can of worms. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called it a \u201cbig event.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cThe scientific arena is where we defeat the West\u2019s domination,\u201d he added. The West is, taking this, and past […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4512,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-271236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4512"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271236\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}